Free Republic

Military leaders in the U.S. and NATO continue to insist that the Russians are making little progress in Bakhmut. Here are a couple of examples of this so-called “thinking”: Russia is making small advances near the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut but this was coming at a great cost, the top U.S. general said on Wednesday.…. No significant gains? I am publishing this animated map as a public service.

Soon after a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals in Ohio last month, anonymous pro-Russian accounts started spreading misleading claims and anti-American propaganda about it on Twitter, using Elon Musk’s new verification system to expand their reach while creating the illusion of credibility. The accounts, which parroted Kremlin talking points on myriad topics, claimed without evidence that authorities in Ohio were lying about the true impact of the chemical spill. The accounts spread fearmongering posts that preyed on legitimate concerns about pollution and health effects and compared the response to the derailment with America’s support for Ukraine following its invasion...

202 views Mar 16, 2023 #russia #drone #blacksea US military officials have released a dramatic video of the moment a Russian fighter jet collided with a US drone over the Black Sea earlier this week. The footage shared Thursday morning by the US European Command (EUCOM) was captured by the underside camera of the MQ-9 Reaper drone as one of two Su-27 fighter jets attempted to spray it with jet fuel. On the second try, the jet collides with the drone’s rear propeller, and the screen pixelates as communication goes down. An audio clip also purported to capture a Russian...

"Russia doesn't cooperate with the organization, and any potential arrest 'recipes' originating from the international court will be null and void for us," Maria Zakharova said...

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham says Russia should be "held accountable" for the destruction of a US military drone.Speaking to Fox News host Sean Hannity on Tuesday, Graham said the US should gun down Russian planes in retaliation.

Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday that its fighter jets did not come into contact with a U.S. drone that crashed into the Black Sea earlier, claiming instead that the drone crashed due to "sharp maneuvering". "The Russian fighters did not use their onboard weapons, did not come into contact with the UAV and returned safely to their home airfield," the defence ministry said.

A group of Russian wives and mothers have called on President Vladimir Putin to stop sending their husbands and sons “to the slaughter” by forcing them to join assault groups without adequate training or supplies. In a video shared by the independent Russian Telegram channel SOTA, the women said their loved ones had been “forced to join assault groups” at the beginning of March despite having just four days training since their mobilization in September. The video shows the women holding a sign in Russian that reads, “580 Separate Howitzer Artillery Division,” dated March 11, 2023. “My husband… is located...

THIS is the moment Vladimir Putin's warlord Ramzan Kadyrov shook uncontrollably as he met with the tyrant. The Chechen brute, 46, feared he had been poisoned just weeks ago after it is reported he became seriously ill with kidney problems. Footage shows Kadyrov shaking as he talks to a puffy-looking Putin - who, rumoured to be battling his own health issues, gripped the table as they spoke. Bloated Kadyrov can be seen unable to control his quivering as he chats to the Russian dictator while reading from pre-prepared handwritten notes with huge writing. A translation by BBC journalist Francis Scarr...

The question of who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines is likely to remain an unsolved mystery for some time.Even as new details surface from European investigators, one of the most intriguing clues to recently emerge comes not from official probes but via a 29-year-old open-source analyst based in Denmark. Oliver Alexander spent months analyzing data from the maritime Automatic Identification System, or AIS, from vessels that passed near the site of three out of the four pipeline ruptures shortly before the damage. He noticed that the Minerva Julie, a 600-foot Greek-flagged tanker, was headed east from Rotterdam when, on...

TLDR update Russian troops launched massive strikes at night on critical infrastructure in Ukraine.The list of the weapons involved in the attack has significantly expanded: the RF Armed Forces used kamikaze drones, cruise missiles, and even the Kinzhal hypersonic complex.What is known by now?Kiev: the engine room and boiler room of CHPP-5, a large generating station in the capital, were hit. Together with other hits, the city experienced significant problems with electricity and communications. Previously, the facility has repeatedly become the target of attacks by Russian troops, but the station still continued to work. If the Armed Forces of the...

Possible deal to end the conflict in Ukraine."NATO, the Pentagon, and the Biden regime are in way over their heads i.e. I would describe the situation as FUBAR, US military slang acronym for 'Fouled up Beyond Any Recognition'. The best deal the US could hope for now would be very much worse than the deal that Boris Johnson squelched in Istanbul last spring. All the US should be tryinig to do at this point is save some modicum of face and, if possible, undo some of the self-inflicted damage."

Three deep-water explosions destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic Sea in September 2022.Swedish seismologists reported that one of the three explosions measures 2.3 on the Richter Scale of earthquake intensity, but this was no earthquake. It was explosion—like a gigantic undersea mine.The explosions guaranteed that Germany and the EU would not go wobbly with regard to sanctions against Russian energy imports. The damage to the pipelines will take months to repair, and repairs are unlikely to begin until this summer. Even if Germany were to cry “uncle” as civil unrest intensifies over lack of heat and energy, even...

These revealing photographs show shop shelves in a provincial Russian city groaning under piles of fresh food. As British supermarkets ration eggs and an array of fruit and vegetables amid shortages provoked in large part by the Ukraine war, no such hardships afflict Vladimir Putin's citizens. The pictures were taken at a food hall, two superstores and a corner shop in Perm, a city with a population the size of Birmingham in the Ural mountains, a 24-hour drive from Moscow. The images suggest the West's much-vaunted sanctions on Russia, imposed to punish President Putin for his invasion, are not having...